Last Tuesday, the Pirates lost to the Cubs with a second straight bullpen meltdown. They were 6-8 with five wins against the Brewers, who have managed to become an MLB punchline faster than any team in recent memory. Since then, they’ve torn off five straight wins against the Cubs and Diamondbacks. This weekend, they swept the Diamondbacks by a combined scored of 14-2. They’ve now won eight of 10, which has them at 11-8 heading into a six-game stretch against the Cubs and Cardinals. In other words, there have been some early-season hiccups, but the Pirates are still in pretty decent shape right now.
Francisco Liriano had a really uneven start today; he walked two hitters in the first, another in the second, and another in the third, but then settled in and only faced nine batters in the fourth, fifth, and sixth, before tiring in the seventh. The six walks look ugly, but it was nice to see him get things back under control after the rough start. Jared Hughes came in and, surprise surprise, needed two pitches to induce an inning-ending double play.
Today was Neil Walker and Gregory Polanco’s turn to run the offense; Walker continued his series-long hot streak with his fourth double against the Diamondbacks, going 3-for-4, driving in two runs, and scoring once. Gregory Polanco had three hits, too, and scored three times. Andrew McCutchen drew a couple of walks, broke out of a long hitless streak, and hit a really deep sac fly in the ninth inning that would’ve left a lot of other ballparks. Starling Marte started the game with three ugly strikeouts, but followed up with two hits late in the game. Pedro Alvarez had a big two-run single in the first that saved an inning that was threatening to be disappointing. In other words, mostly everyone contributed to offense today.
And this is how the real baseball season starts: the Pirates are 8-2 in their last ten, and all that matters how is the next six games.
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